James R. Mirick sets the record straight on things he cares about

Posten Editor Explains the Cartoons

In the context of all the incendiary harangues and self-righteous bloviation about the Mohammed cartoons, Flemming Rose, the editor at the Jyllands-Posten who made the decision to publish them, has written a thoughtful piece on his actions, including this snippet:

I acknowledge that some people have been offended by the publication of the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten has apologized for that. But we cannot apologize for our right to publish material, even offensive material. You cannot edit a newspaper if you are paralyzed by worries about every possible insult. I am offended by things in the paper every day: transcripts of speeches by Osama bin Laden, photos from Abu Ghraib, people insisting that Israel should be erased from the face of the Earth, people saying the Holocaust never happened. But that does not mean that I would refrain from printing them as long as they fell within the limits of the law and of the newspaper's ethical code. That other editors would make different choices is the essence of pluralism.